Patrice gaines biography

About the author .
Patrice Gaines is an author, motivational speaker, and spiritual life coach dedicated to helping others transform their lives.
She is a veteran journalist, becoming a reporter in 1978.

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Author/Speaker

At 19, Patrice began writing secretly about her pain–her self-hatred, anger and dissolution in the world. She wrote what she today calls “bad poetry.” Writing made her feel better, less angry. She came to believe there was healing magic in writing. So she took creative writing and English classes and studied. Eventually, while working as a researcher at the Charlotte News in Charlotte, N.C., she was chosen for the Maynard Institute Summer Program for Minority Journalists, operating from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ignited by other people’s faith in her talent, Patrice became a reporter, working at the Miami News, the Washington Star and then for 16 years at the Washington Post, where she garnered awards for stories about ordinary people overcoming extraordinary challenges.

Today, she is the author of two books–her bestselling memoir Laughing in the Dark–From Colored Girl to Woman of Color, A Journey From Prison to Power; and her inspirational Moments of Grace–Meeting the Challenge to Change.

Patrice has been a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was

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Patrice Gaines was a newspaper reporter for 23 years, working as a reporter for The Washington Post for more than 16 years. While at the Post she wrote two books and won several prestigious awards for her journalism, including the National Black Journalists First Place Award For Commentary. She was part of a reporting team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer and was a Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Essence and the New York Times Magazine. In addition to writing for publication, her commentaries have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and NPR’s now defunct “Blues & Notes.” As a motivational speaker, Ms. Gaines travels the country, talking at conferences, colleges, prisons and drug rehab programs, inspiring audiences with the incredible story of her own life. More recently, she has focused on prison reform and assisting formerly incarcerated people. She has co-founded a nonprofit, the Brown Angel Center, which gives a monthly workshop for women at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg

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Patrice Gaines

Biography of Patrice Gaines

Even though Patrice Gaines had a wonderful, middle class upbringing, and the oldest of seven children of a Marine and a homemaker, by the summer of 1970, at the age of 21, Patrice was in a Charlotte, N.C. jail. Her charge: possession with intent to distribute heroin and possession of a needle and syringe—felonies.

Patrice was also by this time the mother of a two-year-old daughter. Fortunate for them both, she only spent a few weeks in jail and received five years probation. But there was no reason to celebrate. Now she was labeled “a convicted felon,” an “ex-con,” “a criminal.” Though she had a child to support, finding a job was difficult.

Her bad choices continued to put her in dangerous situations. She went from one abusive relationship to another. She was raped and brutally beaten by a man she had just begun to date. She contemplated suicide, but thought of her daughter. She wanted to make her life better so she could make her daughter’s life better.

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